Could I sign for packages as Thomas E. Swift, even though I am not?

there is nothing wrong with using an alias, as long as there is no deception or illegal activity connected with it.

Your signature can be whatever you’d like it to be, some people draw a small unique symbol instead of using letters and that’s their legal signature.

So you can write whatever you’d like as I understand it.

I don’t get the Swift reference, as one data point.

It’s unimportant… unless the shipped item later turns up missing, and the Postal Inspectors have to try to find it, or find out where it went off the rails. Since they can’t find “Tom Swift” – and they will get the reference as soon as they see that signature on their receipt – then it will look to them like fraud, and you could be in trouble if the postal worker is able to point to you and say, “That’s the guy who signed,” and obviously, you aren’t commonly known as “Tom Swift”.

Then you’d have to do some fancy footwork to either produce the item or explain that you actually delivered it to the intended recipient – and got a receipt with a valid signature on it. In other words, confronted with a missing delivery item and an obviously false signature, what would be your initial supposition? They’d have the same suspicion at that point.

If you had signed as ”@Nullo”, then when the Inspector and postal worker confront you, at least you’re working from your real name, and they won’t suppose that you were attempting to steal the delivery, since you obviously used your real name.

@funkdaddy Tom Swifties are one liner (usually) jokes that end in a clever jokes that end in an adverb ending in ly. “I’ve been ba-a-ad,” said Tom sheepishly. And the like.

If Thomas E Swift says so [akin to signing for credit card holder in their name w/permission]

Or are you joking about a pseudonym as some wags were wont to flash pictures of Queen Elizabeth or Humphrey Bogart instead of their ID badges to get a laugh on security guards at secure bases in the good ol’ days?

@anartist et al. Tom Swift is a fictional character.

Those screens are frequently so crusty, dirty or damaged that whatever you sign ends up looking like toddler scribbles. When I worked in a bookstore, I signed for packages almost every morning on those tablets. It never looked remotely like my signature. In fact, it rarely looked like a signature at all. Sometimes it was just a bunch of jagged horizontal lines.

If you wrote Mary, Queen of Scots, they would probably not blink. It would look exactly like Tom Swift or whatever your real name is.

@Nullo – Tom A. Swift?

@Nullo my second scenario applies. and @keobooks reinforces it.
I know who Tom Swift was—I read the books as a kid.

@funkdaddy. good point.
“Does Tom Swift even have a middle name?” she asked equivocally.

@funkdaddy I suppose so.

You can sign any name you want…doesn’t that happen when you sign a package for someone else when they’re not home? I don’t think your signature is for identity purposes. It might be to prove that a package was delivered, that way someone can’t say that it wasn’t. Or you could ask the delivery person if they really need your real name or why they even need a signature, since those screens aren’t really that clear.

I’d say sign the name Washington Irwing, and when they start getting suspicious, switch to Irwing Washington – no catch! ... or is there ;-)